The crazy-heroic way this sailor rescued a cat from a sinking ship

A French sailor was just rescued from his sinking yacht off the coast of Alaska amid an insanely violent day at sea, but he made sure his pet cat wasn’t left behind. He tucked the kitty into his coat and held onto it for dear life, even as he was forced to leap head-first onto a gigantic ship in crazy huge waves. Mon héro!

The Coast Guard received a distress call from the Frenchman aboard his boat, La Chimere, in which he said, “he had no rudder or rigging and was taking on heavy seas.” It’s easy to see why when you take a look at the Coast Guard footage of the rescue. I’m no expert, but it looks like a Perfect Storm type sitch going on. TBH, I actually felt a little seasick just watching the video. I can’t imagine how the poor French sailor must have felt, not to mention the precious little chat tucked into his coat. Très horrible!

The Coast Guard dispatched a plane and a cutter, but when they realized how imminent the situation was, they contacted a nearby commercial ship, the Tor Viking, and asked the crew to help out. They found the French sailor balancing on the bow of his boat, Titanic-style. The huge ship got as close as it could to what was left of La Chimere, then the sailor had to make a literal leap of faith. In the rescue video, you can see him dive headfirst onto the Tor Viking‘s deck, and honestly, it looks like he and his cat barely made it. Thank goodness. We don’t even want to think about what would have happened if they hadn’t.

Watch their daring escape from the high seas in the video below. Then go give your cat a really big squeeze. Just a thought.